#Elsewhere Elsewhen

[mdhwrites]

I feel like something funny about people saying S2B was written with the shortening in mind, and so they had little time to spend, is that the majority of the time travel plot in Elsewhere Elsewhen is rendered redundant by Hollow Mind. The Savage Ages not being that bad, Philip always being a jerk, the Collector being revealed: all accomplished by the trip into Belos's mind and memories. The only thing the time travel thing does is explain why Belos hasn't gone after Luz, and set up Luz's arc of guilt for the rest of the series. Seeing that Belos is at his core pathetic and being beat up by Lilith was great, but he's also played completely seriously as a threat for the rest of the show. Even Luz's encounter against him in King's Tide draws more on the events of Hollow Mind then in Elsewhere Elsewhen.

I personally think Elsewhere Elsewhen is the worst episode of the show. It solidified that Lilith wasn't someone you could take seriously anymore and a whole new character, it ruined anything interesting about Belos' rise to power, it uses just a DUMB time travel mcguffin to have its plot, there's very little actually entertaining about it besides Luz's little jokes here and there, it RUINS the Isles in my opinion and anything interesting about them and... Yeah. It's a complete fucking waste of time. (It also introduces BS trauma for Luz which made me make a writing lesson blog about trauma in fantasy stories you can find here.) And I was saying that BEFORE Hollow Mind because... Yeah. Hollow Mind was always coming. It's impressive how redundant Hollow Mind makes Elsewhere Elsewhen but also, Elsewhere Elsewhen only has two minutes of screen time that is actually important. That progresses the narrative, in part for much of what you said. Though I do want to point out that the episode never paints him as pathetic. Physically weak perhaps but he somehow manages to trick the ex-head of the EC and Eda's apprentice with a bare bones scam and gets away almost scot-free for it. But that is not the larger problem. The problem is that the stinger at the end of Elsewhere Elsewhen is a waste. Of. Time. Let's actually talk about stingers for a moment and their uses and why Elsewhere Elsewhen's is the worst kind. First, of course, what is a stinger? It's a small thing at the end of the episode that is usually at least slightly disconnected from the rest of the episode and often serve as cliffhangers. This can be done in multiple ways like just five seconds of showing someone is watching, cutting away for a minute to a different character and what they're doing, etc. like that. Amphibia and TOH actually both start using them in S2 of their shows (just another WEIRD connection between the two where it feels like TOH is badly copying Amphibia's homework) and Amphibia does it better. Amphibia mostly does the building tension form of a stinger. This is because the stinger only ever is about Frobo (I haven't actually gotten to him yet, still only halfway through S2) and once with King Andrias and his chess board. Both are hinting towards future villains and have a tone of a looming threat but incorporating them into the episode would be awkward and so they're placed at the end as effectively a cliffhanger. TOH tried to do this in their first episode of S2 with the scrying potion. It was dumb and obviously just a fake out to be like "OOOH, BELOS! Luz won't see him again until S2B!" It's... Not as effective as Amphibia showing Frobo emerging and starting to follow the Plantars. I will give that the stinger of creepy Luz back home with Camila IS a good version of this sort of stinger. Another version is just moving the plot along. This is one that TOH does a lot more and to mixed effect. Escaping Expulsion, Them's the Breaks and Elsewhere Elsewhen (theoretically) are three I can name off the top of my head if you count them. The first is just functional. It gets the point across but also feels anti-Isles because sure, someone with enough money tooootally couldn't recruit enough greedy people to make their own army. The abomatons are totally a new concept for this place. Second has the problem of being ALL the plot we get on that front when there was so much more you could do with Raine and his rebellion. And Elsewhere Elsewhen, besides the issues I'll bring up soon, has the problem of making the reveal of Belos is Philip in Hollow Mind, which is done shockingly well, weaker. You can also use stingers to help add clues to a mystery and the like which creepy Luz theoretically does. I could probably also cite Gravity Falls but I haven't watched enough of that show.

All of these... are actually good uses of Stingers, at least conceptually. They have a function to the narrative. The version of Stinger that Elsewhere Elsewhen is... Is the only one that doesn't. It's the Stinger for the audience. It serves no other purpose than to give the audience information and shock that will HAVE to be gone over again. Notice that the rest of these are pieces of information that would be troublesome to tell in the main story. They're not vital but they foreshadow, expand or move a tertiary element forward. Philip being Belos was never something Luz wasn't going to find out. It's too big and it's too important. She would have always found out about the Collector too since Belos works with the little guy. These were elements that were ALWAYS going to be covered and in a grand and spectacular way. And you know what? THEY WERE!

In Hollow Mind, they just ignore the fact that they've already revealed all of this information to the audience and go the whole nine yards to make the reveal as big as possible. It's a good reveal even. But the audience doesn't gasp because they already knew. And for what purpose? Well... To post on Twitter about it. I'd really like to be nicer about this but that's really it. It's a Stinger purely to give the fans something to talk about. It doesn't serve any other purpose. AT BEST, if you're REALLY invested already, you get excited for Luz to find out herself. But if you're that invested (or invested enough to talk about this with more than a fellow fan)... You probably didn't need to be pandered to. You'd have rather gotten either those two minutes back or just had the entire episode focus on something ACTUALLY plot relevant. Which, I do want to admit one thing: It really fucking sucks that Elsewhere Elsewhen is filler because it's one of the way too few episodes dedicated to the effort of making Luz a way home, especially for how important Luz claims it is to her. Talking about the bad job they did with the portal door plot, or just how bullshit magic becomes in S2B simply to get rid of the Titan's Blood, are different blogs. For now... Elsewhere Elsewhen is a bad episode that is a waste of time. And the fact there are two episodes in S2B that I can call a waste of time is a real rough spot for the show to be in when at this point, yes, the shortening should have mattered. But really... Just look at the show. They were never going to prioritize in ways that made sense for needing to tighten up their story. Not when they've never had proper priorities. Last note: I am actually out of asks. This may lead to me slowing down with blogs, we'll see. *shrug*

[strawberyaurabya]

“Sacrifice”

Oopsie… I realized that when I posted those doodles yesterday, I forgot to put up this small comic along with it-

It’s the scene in “Elsewhere and Elsewhen”, when Lilith and Luz learn about Philip’s true intentions. For some strange reason, it really spooked me out, hearing his eerily calm voice saying “I needed a sacrifice”. You could definitely tell it was Belos from that point onwards. This ended up being my favorite scene overall in the episode, so I made it into a lil piece. Sorry if I got too lazy with shading…

The Wittebro doodles are cooking, so they’ll still need some time <3. But they’ll be there in a few weeks tops!

‼️ DO NOT TAG AS A SHIP.

[pickledragon]

elsewhere to see, elsewhen to be

[qcoded]

forgot to post this on here 😭 finally did another TDM screencap LOL

Honestly now that I think about it, I'd imagine Eda would've definitely gotten along with Collin more genuinely than Philip with Luz. Collin was similar to herself as a child, so it was easier to resonate with the kid :P Still manipulated him though!!

screenshot I used!!

[icy-watch]

*Flashbacks to Skybound*

Please don't say "wish".

[mxadrian779]

OH

MY

GOD

IT JUST CLICKED

FLORA D'ESPLORA -> DORA THE EXPLORER

I've spent the last ten minutes trying to figure out why Luz "has questions about that name"

[littleankou]

Every time that I search up Belos/Philip's glyph arm pattern, the more and more I end up as the top/most recent result of the search like... why. We have the teletransportation combination, the door opening combination in the wiki but not his arm? help

[wackulart]

Reader goes into the tide pools and meets Belos like with Lilith and Luz in that one episode

giving me an excuse to rewatch Elsewhere Elsewhen AND write 1600s Philip? IM ON IT.

Part 2

Philip Wittebane x Reader

----------------------------

You didn't think the time pools would actually work.

The topic of them came up during a conversation you were having with a store owner and reminded you of the days you used to pretend to find them. You had some makeshift toy that didn't really work, you would crawl into one side of a hollow log and exit out the other side acting like you were in the future.

It was fun as a kid so you thought to go back to that place and revisit those memories. You didn't expect to fall into the sand and end up centuries into the past. Your immediate reaction was to hop right back in and back away. As you scrambled out of the time pool you took a second to breathe.

Once the initial anxiety had died down a bit, a thought crossed your mind.. why not?

How many witches could really say they had been in a time pool? Most demons you knew didn't even believe in them and that included you until now. You had considered the risks, but the tide wouldn't be coming quite some time.

...Fuck it.

You stood up and peeked your head back in. The beach hadn't seemed to different too the one you were currently on, yet you had spotted a group of witches celebrating something. With what you remembered from your days at school you recognized the outfits as those from the Deadwardian era.

Then you realized you'd probably stick out a bit with your modern clothing, not to mention the bloody fly effect.

After you pulled yourself through the portal, you moved to the trees to grab a few large leaves and makeshift yourself a hat. Once you adjusted your clothes to look a little more aged and you were satisfied, you headed into the town.

It was so surreal to see things that you had only read in history books. What was even stranger was how calm and kind things were in this era. You were pretty sure that these were considered the savage ages, wasn't wild magic dangerously rampant?

Before you could dwell too much on the thought, the sound of a door slamming made you turn swiftly in the direction. You looked to see a man kick at the door before stumbling back and yelling at the person inside. He adjusted his jacket and began stomping off, too angry to notice that he had dropped something.

You rushed over to pick it up and tap his shoulder. The man audibly groaned before turning to you and as you held out the pen that he had nearly lost, your eyes widened.

"You're human." You spoke before you could stop yourself.

He paused before sighing and taking his pen from you harshly. "Here to poke fun? I'll have you know that I have no intention in wasting my time-"

You waved your hands panickedly. "No, I've just never met a human before." You couldn't help but have a genuine fascination in meeting someone from a completely different world.

There was a look of confusion, maybe conflict before it fell and he turned away. He wasn't sure what you were looking for from him but he wasn't going to fall for those sparkling eyes. There was clearly ill intent behind them, even if he couldn't see it just yet.

The man forced a smile and turned to leave, not expecting you to follow him. He looked over to you as you shoved your hands towards him and told him your name.

The human stopped, staring at you hard. He could see a determination in your eyes that told him he wasn't getting out of this easy.

He sighed before taking your hand and shaking it. "My name is Philip Wittebane."

You two had begun walking together, you were mostly taking in the sights while pointing at things you found interesting. He had tried several times to sneak off from you but you had stayed resilient.

Philip had decided to not waste his opportunity by asking you questions and you had plenty for him as well.

He wouldn't admit that he was sort of enjoying the company, it was simply a by product from traveling alone for as long as he had been.

That was it.

Philip had sat on a bench with you joining in the seat right beside him. You leaned into him and peeked at his journal, then you noticed that he was drawing the bird a few feet in front of the two of you.

You looked back and forth between it and then pointed excitedly at his sketch. "Hey, that's really good!"

He shot up and his voice stuttered. "Oh, uhm- Thank you."

It was a challenge trying not to react at how close you had gotten, he tried to force his focus onto his journal.

You seemed to be rather comfortable around him, the whole walk you spoke so passionately about everything you told him. He was trying to understand why you were so excited around him even when his answers had been cold and short.

Then he heard you gasp lightly and looked up to see what the issue was. He followed your eyes to a sketch he had done while you two had been walking. It wasn't anything impressive by his standards, a simple silhouette drawing of you and him.

"Is that me?" You questioned.

He nodded and felt his face grow red at the genuine smile on your face.

What is this?

What were you doing to him?

This curse that you had plagued him with forced words out of his mouth. "Do you.. like it?"

He didn't understand why he cared, in fact he shouldn't care what a witch had to say about his work. He didn't care.

He didn't have to force down a smile when you nodded and asked to see more drawings, he didn't purposefully scoot closer to you while you two looked through his book and he definitely did not sneak peeks at that adorable look on your face as you awed over his things.

Then came nightfall and you explained that you had to go and that you weren't sure that you could come back.

Philip nodded and held out his hand, he ignored the twist in his stomach and realized that it was for the best. Lest he fall to the temptation that had twisted his brother.

Instead of taking it, you pulled him in for a hug since you probably wouldn't see him again. The chance that you could find another time pool was incredibly rare and not to mention that this was four hundred years in the past.

You felt him slowly put his arms around you until you pulled away.

"Goodbye, Philip." You called out as you began to run towards the beach before the tide came in.

He waved to you, memorizing the sound of your voice and the look in your eyes. Perhaps he could not have you, as you were a demon and he would never see you again, but he could have your memory.

You made it to the time pools and took a couple tries before you had found your time and hopped back into it. As you got out to the other side and landed on top of the sand, you felt the tide hit your ankles. That was it then. You wondered if you could find something about Philip in the library somewhere.

Just to check if things had fared well for him.

The next week had been much calmer for you compared to the adventure you had gone on, but you still smiled at the fact that not only had you met a human but you befriended him.

No one would believe it.

As you carried your goods to the Emperor's castle and helped unloaded packages with a few other workers, you felt eyes on you. You looked behind you to see the Emperor himself, the fact that he had been there at all had surprised you.

It had even surprised you enough to miss the recognition in his eyes as he whispered your name under his breath.

[amoritasart]

Why is there no war or conflicts in the Boiling Isles before Philip came into the picture?? I’m so confused?? Like everyone in the past was so nice ?? You telling me humans back home were suffering poverty, war, famine, killing and accusing each other of witchcraft, committing genocide against natives, but the witches had a whole utopia? Why did Evelyn even take interest in such a place?? You telling me tween Philip single-handedly introduced evil to an entire civilization?? A random fatherless, motherless, brotherless man took over an entire world full of beings that naturally have immense power, no one else ever even tried to abuse this natural born power ever ??

[maskednerd]

[welcometogrouchland]

[ID: a coloured and shaded digital sketch of Luz and Lilith from the owl house. They're depicted with their designs from For the Future. Luz is tackle-hugging Lilith, ugly crying and exclaiming "I missed you so much". Lilith braces for the hug and smiles with tears also in her eyes. The background is a pale yellow colour and previous versions of the sketch can be seen at low opacity behind the full drawing. End ID]

When you see your cool aunt (actually a loser but you love her) for the first time in months and she has a badass apocalypse makeover but still somehow looks like a librarian

[70sscifiart]

1968 Don Ivan Punchatz cover art to "Elsewhere and Elsewhen," edited by Groff Conklin

[dannydanoninoo]

Wait a minute...

WAS THIS BITCH REALLY WEARING CALEB'S CLOTHES?

THIS WHOLE TIME?!

[wingedarrows]

“The emperor wanted to make sure you weren’t getting into any trouble. And to clear out your office. I left a box of your knickknacks inside.”

“Wish you took more from my tutelage, dear. History’s supposed to be exciting after all!”

“Flora Desplora, bad girl historian, celebrity, and my former mentor in the emperor’s coven.”

“All I ever got to do was desk work while she goofed off riding wild snake horses and- and- and eating mummy jerky!

Well I can be just as exciting as Flora. I’ll come up with an exhibit that’ll knock the titan’s socks off!”

“It’s almost as if the emperor wanted Flora to tick me off.”

“I . . . did cobble together a device to find [time pools] with Eda. It should be in the box Flora returned to me.”

Gosh it was so obvious how did I not see it before

[qcoded]

I rewatched Elsewhere and Elsewhen yesterday and??? The thought of The Collector hearing Phil call him a "round boy" and "ooblong" is so funny to me LMFAOOO

Which!! Brings up a question for me, was the collector at least able to hear their surroundings when they were unburied, even if they couldn't interact with their environment? Or were they disconnected from the world until Philip made them come out???? Genuinely no clue

extra doodle lol

[icy-watch]

Steve!?!

STEVE!